The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024
MouthIO: MIT and Aarhus 3D-print a sensor-packed dental brace users design themselves
An open-source dental brace with sensors and vibration feedback that users 3D-print to fit their own teeth
MIT CSAIL · Aarhus University
What it had to solve
Hands-free interaction usually means voice assistants; accessibility and health sensing in the mouth were blocked by complex tooth geometry and a humid environment.
How it works
Hands-free computing usually means voice assistants, but researchers at MIT CSAIL and Aarhus University picked a stranger spot: inside the mouth. MouthIO is a clear dental brace users can design themselves and 3D-print in dental resin, with sensors and actuators built into a small PCB housing on the side.
The workflow is a DIY pipeline. Users scan a physical tooth impression with a phone app, upload it to Blender, and use the researchers' plugin to shape a brace that fits their teeth. A standard version covers the teeth; an open-bite version exposes the tips so wearers do not lisp. Electronics are then soldered on: accelerometers, temperature sensors, tongue-touch pads, vibration motors and LEDs.
The result is a wearable that can do very different jobs depending on how it is configured. In experiments, an accelerometer tracked bruxism (teeth grinding); touchpads let users scroll a webpage by tapping their tongue; a temperature sensor made the brace vibrate when a drink exceeded 65 °C, an alert aimed at people with mouth numbness.
Making it cost about $15 and two hours per device, and users preferred the open-bite version in a study. The team frames MouthIO as an open-source device, and is prototyping single-sided and wirelessly charging variants — a first step, not a finished product.
Why it lands
- 3D printing plus a scan-to-design plugin turns custom-fit hardware from a lab service into an end-user workflow
- The same shell accepts different sensors, so one platform covers health monitoring, accessibility and safety alerts
- An open-bite design solved the social blocker (lisping) that would have killed daily wear
- At roughly $15 in materials, the barrier to trying the idea is almost zero
What it did
The brace tracked teeth grinding in tests, let users scroll web pages with tongue taps over Bluetooth, and the open-bite variant was preferred in a user study; the paper was presented at ACM UIST 2024.
What you can take
When a body part is hard to fit, hand the fitting problem to the user: an open design pipeline (scan, customize, print) turns an impossible one-size product into a personal one.
Since then
The MouthIO paper was presented at ACM UIST 2024 and publicized by MIT CSAIL. The researchers are running a longer-term study, experimenting with flexible materials, and have prototyped a single-sided version and a wireless-charging version. It remains a research prototype rather than a commercial product.
Sources
- Interactive mouthpiece opens new opportunities for health data, assistive technology, and hands-free interactions
- Interactive mouthpiece advances opportunities for health data, assistive technology, and hands-free interactions
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